The wisteria is blooming over the patio, here’s a nice shot for you. The purple, violet flowers are about two feet long. They have a very light scent, a little creamy to me.
Wisteria is a vine that looks great over a trellis or the side of a house where the long flowers can hang down in spring when they bloom. Mine looks so beautiful, I almost forget how high maintenance it is the rest of the year. Wisteria can survive on low water and poor soils, so they’re a nice choice for drought tolerant gardens.
In spring it is always exciting to see the little buds forming on the bare branches. In a few weeks the vine is covered in purple flowers. The leaves don’t start to sprout until after the blooms open. So, you have a dramatic plant dripping in purple flowers and nothing else. Very pretty.
The wisteria blossoms cover the ground in a violet blanket after they are finished. Luckily the blossoms are not sticky. I let them blow into the flower beds where they decompose quickly. After wisteria blooms it goes into a growth spurt. You’ll need to keep an eye on it if you are training it. Better yet, keep both eyes on this vine – it will send out a 10 foot runner seemingly overnight.
In the fall, the seed pods dry, forming long, thin dangling pods which look interesting against the fading foliage. BUT, when the pods dry they explode – sending the seeds flying. You do not want to be under a wisteria when the seed pods are going off! I try to cut them off before they get too dry. But I always miss a few. I’ll be sitting under the trellis and hear a pod go off and duck before the seeds hit me!
But back to the reason people love this plant. Look at those blossoms!